Richard Epstein to be the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law

Preeminent legal scholar Richard Epstein will join the Law School's full-time faculty as the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law on July 1.

He will teach two classes during the 2010-11 academic year: Contracts for 1Ls in the fall, and a course on food and drug law in the spring.

“Richard Epstein is one of the most prominent, productive, and thought-provoking law professors in the country, and I’m thrilled he’ll be coming to NYU School of Law,” Dean Richard Revesz said in a press release announcing Epstein’s arrival. “It’s no exaggeration for me to say that he is one of the most influential legal scholars alive today, and he will be a tremendous addition to our faculty.” For the past four years, Epstein has taught each fall at NYU Law as a visiting professor.

Since 2000, Epstein has been the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. Prior to joining the University of Chicago Law School faculty, where he has been the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law and director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, he taught at the University of Southern California Law School. Epstein served as interim dean at the University of Chicago from February to June 2001. He was editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001.

Epstein received an A.B. from Columbia College in 1964; a B.A. (Juris.) First Class from Oxford University in 1966; and his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1968. He also received an LL.D., hc, from the University of Ghent in 2003.